Gokujō Parodius! ~Kako no Eikō o Motomete~
, released in Europe as 'Fantastic Journey', is a side-scrolling shooter arcade game and the third title in the ''Parodius series produced by Konami. Like the rest of the series, it is a parody of the Gradius series and other Konami games. Gameplay Overall, the gameplay is identical to that of its predecessor, Parodius Da!, with several new characters to choose from. Also new is that if you play a two-player game, the second player will have a different set of characters to select. They are clones of the first player characters, except with different names and slightly altered sprites or changed color palettes. The characters are: *Vic Viper and Lord British *Pentarou and Hanako *TwinBee and WinBee *Takosuke and Belial *Hikaru and Akane *Mambo and Samba *Michael and Gabriel *Koitsu and Aitsu *Goemon and Ebisumaru *Dracula-kun and Kid Dracula *Upa and Rupa In the Parodius series, starting with Gokujō Parodius!, the Power Meter was changed from a bar with the weapon names as text to a bar with pictures indicating the power-ups. The borders of each icon determine the gameplay type chosen, red for auto, yellow for semi-auto, and blue for manual. As this kind of power meter is shorter, two separate power meters appear onscreen on a two player game. When playing a two player game, shooting the other character enough times will cause it to get angry and fire shots in all directions for a short time. In the updated ports of Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius, this can be turned on or off in the options screen. Also, when a player has pressed continue, the game stops as the player chooses his/her character and the game type. Stages Ports Gokujō Parodius! was ported to the Super Famicom in 1994. The only significant difference between the console and the arcade version was added characters: Goemon/Ebisumaru from Ganbare Goemon, Dracula-kun/Kid-D from Kid Dracula, and Upa and Rupa from Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa. Weapon differences in the SNES release Hikaru and Akane get the Tailgun, the Boomerang Shot from Thunder Cross, another shooter game by Konami, and a Shield instead of the Spread Bomb, the Carrot Shot and a force field called Star that they get in the arcade version, as well as on the Deluxe Pack released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Similarly, Mambo and Samba are given Homing Missiles, the Reflect Shot (which gives them two options when chosen), Grade Up and a Shield instead of the Bubble Missile, the Control Laser, Search Laser and a force field known as Barrier. Other releases Gokujō Parodius! was also ported along with Parodius Da! in the Gokujō Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack for PlayStation in 1994 and Sega Saturn in 1995. This compilation was released in Japan and Europe as Ultimate Parodius, with Parodius Da! simply titled Parodius and Gokujō Parodius as Fantastic Journey. The European release had English texts when the Megaphone is used and re-colored the mini Eagle Sabu enemies to green (as opposed to brown in the Japanese version). It was also released on mobile phones and included in Parodius Portable (although in the latter release some of the songs were removed due to copyright issues). Gallery GokujouArt.jpg|Key art Trivia *Inside the arcade ROM, there are two additional pieces of music that went unused. Both a stage and boss theme are listed, and are repeated multiple times within the ROM, suggesting they were possibly placeholder pieces. The two music tracks are Je Te Veux and "Habanera" from Carmen. Category:Arcade games Category:Mobile games Category:Parody games Category:PlayStation games Category:PSP games Category:Saturn games Category:Super NES games